Los Angeles Times:
The tempest in a tip jar tipped back in favor of Starbucks Corp. on Tuesday when a California appeals court reversed a ruling that had ordered the coffee giant to pay more than $100 million in restitution for allowing shift supervisors to share baristas' tips.
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The company is making way too much money to stiff its employees like that. Shame.
There is a relatively new frozen yogurt shop here in L.A. Their claim to the glutted pink.berry frozen yogurt market? Self-serve. You get your own cup. You also grab your own napkin. You take cup to wall with several different styles of frozen yogurt. You pump your own frozen yogurt into said cup. You take your frozen yogurt filled cup to the toppings bar where you bedeck your frozen yogurt with sauces, syrups, nuts, candies, etc, of your choice. Then you take your self-served cup of frozen yogurt and toppings and you place it on an electronic scale in front of, and I believe attached to, the cash register. The price of your frozen yogurt pops up on a digital display. The person "working" behind the counter looks at you, states the price aloud, then hands you a plastic spoon. And what's that prominently displayed next to the scale and cash register? You guessed it...
A tip cup.
wtf?
Who's running your local Starbucks anyway? In my blog, www.Career
I worked for Starbucks for about 5 years. I think everyone needs to know that although baristas and supervisors do about the same work, as far as helping customers, supervisors are the ones that handle all the money, secure the store, make sure that things are cleaned a certain way, and basically keep it running when the manager is not there. The reason that a supervisor makes more money is abundantly clear. They are in control of the floor, trying to make sure things run smoothly. The store I worked at had 13 employees on the floor at the same time. That required me to make sure that every one was in the right position to help the customer, and make sure things moved quickly. There is a heap more responsibility that goes with the job, and they are held responsible if things do not go correctly, or a situation with a customer is poorly handled. So, please people, make sure you know everything before you spew stuff on here...it is not as easy as you all are making it out to be. Thanks.
PS~ Sbux is a great company to work for, and they really do treat their employees very well...muc
Great comment. Glad to hear that they treat their employees good, I was wondering about that. I have never tipped, since I serve myself by standing in line to take away my coffee, so the tip issue just blows my mind, for people to go to court. I will only tip if I actually sit down and have service like in a real cafe...
well not good
I just had the best laugh from Starrina post! Thanks
So you want me to pay an obscene price for a cup of "coffee" AND pay your staff's salary as well? PLEASE.
The whole idea of TIP JARS is offensive! Pay your employees a living wage -- don't turn them into pan handlers and don't ask me to pay for you!
I wouldn't buy a Starbucks band-aid if I were bleeding to death.
Starbucks burns the coffee and the employees too!
and the bathrooms are often filthy.
I boycott Starbucks, too. Just because the coffee's bad and I refuse to use made-up words.
I do agree with you on the made up words, always order just a medium cappuchino and sometimes the girls just look at me like I am from another planet...I do not like the words, because I have been to REAL Italian cafe's and they do not even serve grande and whatever, they have REAL china cups, indoors and out and one size fits all.
Just because the coffee's bad and I refuse to use made-up words.
but not write a complete sentence
This will not be the end of this case, as the reversal of the Verdict is in direct conflict with the law as referenced in the article. If the Judge's finding was substantiated by the argument that the Supervisors perform "essentially perform the same job as baristas", then it stands to reason that the inverse is true; the Baristas perform essentially the same job as Supervisors, in which case it appears they are due additional compensation beyond those tips. Perhaps an entirely new lawsuit is in order so that the Baristas are paid retroactively for the differential between their hourly rate and that of supervisors, given that they "perform the same duties". Perhaps someone at Starbuck's corporate could do the math and realize that calculating roughly $3.00 per hour would by far exceed the value of the tips as referenced in this article, which is estimated at $1.71 per hour. To break it down, based on estimates in the article, that is 1.75438596
This will not be the end of this case, as the reversal of the Verdict is in direct conflict with the law as referenced in the article. If the Judge's finding was substantiated by the argument that the Supervisors perform "essentially perform the same job as baristas", then it stands to reason that inverse is true; the Baristas perform essentially the same job as Supervisors, in which case it appears they are do additional compensation beyond those tips. Perhaps an entirely new lawsuit is in order so that the Baristas are paid retroactively for the differential between their hourly rate and that of supervisors, given that they "perform the same duties". Perhaps someone at Starbuck's corporate could do the math and realize that calculating roughly $3.00 per hour would by far exceed the value of the tips as referenced in this article, which is estimated at $1.71 per hour. To break it down, that is 1.75438596
Wow, what a drag. Buh bye Starbucks.
NOW can we finally all BOYCOTT STARBUCKS FOR GOOD?
I fu*king hate Starbucks. I haven't been there for about a year since this whole "tips" case started.
And I now have 5 different fun coffee places that are WAY BETTER than Starbucks!
I've never been to Starbucks and never plan on going to one. Is that technically boycotting? We have a couple of locally owned coffee shops/cafes in the town where I live and a Starbucks - the locally owned places win every time. They're better, less commercial and the profits stay in my community instead of being sent to some distant city to feed an impersonal corporate machine.
Local places are ALWAYS better because they are usually more authentic and serve coffee in real cups, unfortunately for me, the local places are not always convenient.
WHAT is wrong with the courts?
They keep ruling for big corporations and against the little people.
Something is very wrong in our state courts these days.
Or else the courts are easily bribed. I mean seriously. Look at the ruling. Five Mil to a couple of judges is a lot cheaper than a hundred mil plus expenses.
Same with the BofA decision. Ten mil or so vs billions? And if you think it can't happen, you're realllllly not up with things are ya?
Dear Starbucks,
I hate you. I hope your company dies.
Signed,
1 of many many lost customers
The court did not side with corp as much as they sided with the managers that share the tips. I am sure the managers that got the tips were not corp guys making a mill a year.
Either these supervisor/managers weren't being paid for their responsibilities but were simply told - do it, or else! (very possible) OR they shouldn't have had their hands in the cookie (tip) jar. All of this rebutts the Starbucks' pro-employee hype.
I like Starbucks but have never believed that any cup of coffee was worth $3-$5 a cup. I don't want any US busiiness to fail, but if I was forced to pick one - this would be it.
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First Posted: 06- 2-09 11:12 PM | Updated: 06- 2-09 11:16 PM